Target Corporation has long been known for its highly "targeted" marketing research and highly successful techniques. As cited in this New York Times Article, "How Companies Learn Your Secrets", they can predict if a woman is going to have a baby by the shift in her purchasing habits. Even before her (or THE) father knows.
It is done through a series of purchasing trends and analyses of numbers, to develop an algorithm that The System can implement to offer future coupons and incentives which will increase customer loyalty. I am here to argue that the same intense focus can be used to prevent bad UX, not only within a computer interface, but also within the context of the larger relationship of a customer and a business.
I have received a few emails recently, generated automatically and from a do-not-reply email. The last message frustrated me to the point where I considered writing back. For a split second. Once upon a time, if you got a letter and were angered enough to write a response, you had the sense that it would be received by a person.
Granted, maybe that person wouldn't read every word of your eloquent screed against the injustices of the system. Even if they did, it is unlikely that it would bring them to tears and mercy as you had intended.
At best, it would have provided me a way to vent my frustration at the system without having to "waste" the time of an actual employee, whether at a call center or some poor powerless person with a title involving some euphemism including the words "customer service".
At worst, The System would flag my account as having a "negative attitude", with unknown repercussions.
Maybe at some point in the future, the System might create an algorithm to search for potential problems before they occur. If they had reached out to me actually asking for information and offering an actual human exchange a few months ago, perhaps the misunderstanding would not have escalated to the point where I want to throw my computer out the window.
Thanks, I feel slightly better now. But I am not a happy customer.
It is done through a series of purchasing trends and analyses of numbers, to develop an algorithm that The System can implement to offer future coupons and incentives which will increase customer loyalty. I am here to argue that the same intense focus can be used to prevent bad UX, not only within a computer interface, but also within the context of the larger relationship of a customer and a business.
I have received a few emails recently, generated automatically and from a do-not-reply email. The last message frustrated me to the point where I considered writing back. For a split second. Once upon a time, if you got a letter and were angered enough to write a response, you had the sense that it would be received by a person.
Granted, maybe that person wouldn't read every word of your eloquent screed against the injustices of the system. Even if they did, it is unlikely that it would bring them to tears and mercy as you had intended.
At best, it would have provided me a way to vent my frustration at the system without having to "waste" the time of an actual employee, whether at a call center or some poor powerless person with a title involving some euphemism including the words "customer service".
At worst, The System would flag my account as having a "negative attitude", with unknown repercussions.
Maybe at some point in the future, the System might create an algorithm to search for potential problems before they occur. If they had reached out to me actually asking for information and offering an actual human exchange a few months ago, perhaps the misunderstanding would not have escalated to the point where I want to throw my computer out the window.
Thanks, I feel slightly better now. But I am not a happy customer.
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